Insulated containers, colloquially referred to as “coolers,” are popular consumer items that are commonly and widely used for cooling, maintaining, and/or storing various items, such as food and drink. The insulated containers are typically portable, and are accordingly often used in a variety of outdoor settings, e.g., picnicking, camping, and the like. Other important applications stem from the frequently existing need to transport commercial goods such as perishable food, drink, medicine, and environmental samples. Finally, insulated containers find important uses in the medical industry, where they are used to move transplant organs and other articles that need to remain cold during transport and prior to use.
Various designs of a typical insulated container are well known. Commonly, a cooling medium (e.g., ice, ice water, etc.) is placed at the bottom of a container, and the items to be cooled, stored, and/or maintained are placed on top of the cooling medium. Thereafter, an additional amount of the cooling medium may be placed on top of the items, and/or on the sides. As a result, the items to be cooled, stored, and/or maintained are ensconced in the cooling medium and are cooled due to a direct contact with it.
While being helpful and useful in many respects, the existing portable storage containers are characterized by a number of drawbacks and deficiencies. The most obvious disadvantage is an inherently limited time during which the items can be maintained under a reduced temperature. Once the ice has melted and the resulting water's temperature has reached the ambient temperature, one can no longer obtain any advantage or benefit by using a cooler. In addition, in existing systems, the items that are being cooled are in direct contact with ice and/or ice water. As a result, the items or their outer wrapping inevitably become wet. This is often quite undesirable.
Accordingly, there is an acute need for improved devices and methods useful for storing perishable items, particularly devices and methods allowing increasing the effective storage time. To the best of the inventors' knowledge, such improved devices and methods have not been provided in the art. The present application provides some of such improved methods and devices.